If your ducks aren’t friendly, is it even worth it?!
It’s important for our ducks to be friendly so that our daughter Quinn can enjoy them.
One of the things we have let Quinn do is when we have gotten a new duck, we let her hold them and teach her from the start to be gentle.
With that being said, we have many pictures of her not being gentle but that’s part of being a kid. We have many pictures of her holding our animals in a NOT gentle manner. She doesn’t hurt them, we always watch her. I honestly think because we have let her kind of figure it out, she is very brave around any kind of animal.
Here are 7 ways to help you raise friendly ducks:
- I have found that to have friendly ducks, getting the ducks as close as possible to 1 day old is a must.
- Once you have the ducks, we hold them every day, multiple times a day. If you have kids they are going to want to spend loads of time with them which is good! The more time you spend with them the more they will be used to you picking them up.
- We also name them and talk to them whenever we hang out with them. We come up with nicknames for them and they become part of the family. Use their names when you see them and when you approach them.
- Feed them out of your hand from the very beginning.
- Make sure you give them time in the water, kitchen sink, bathtub, etc, this gains trust and then they learn that the sound of water is something good and positive. When we move our ducks outside and fill their pond, they come running.
- Ducks are fast, they naturally do not want to be held. But, when you hold them from day one, they will be easier to catch because they will have that little bit of trust knowing you won’t hurt them. I have seen people say to never chase ducks… if you do this, you will never be able to hold your ducks. Just like chickens, they will run. It’s their instinct. It is okay to chase them as long as you have the motive to hold them or help them. If you are chasing them to chase them; that’s a no-no.
- It’s important to continue giving them attention as they get older to keep that trust. It’s so easy to be in love with ducklings and then once they grow you become less interested. Please be interested in your grown animals! They still need the love and care they had when they were a baby.
When buying baby ducks, I choose to go through My Pet Chicken. They offer small order sizes. The shipping does go up when you make those small orders BUT, it is so important to me and worth the money to get all-female ducks in my order. My Pet Chicken
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